Shot Cocktails: Taking The Shooter Beyond Sex On The Beach

Classics Revamped

The concept has become seductive enough that last year an entire bar dedicated to the concept opened in New York. At Boilermaker, while you can find plenty of classic and inventive cocktails, you’ll also see a rotating list of intriguing shots and craft beers. Though the vibe is deliberately downmarket, pseudo-dive bar (with classic fried bar food and fantastic burgers), the drinks are anything but. For the holidays, Boilermaker morphed into the beach-themed “Sippin’ Santa’s Surf Shack,” with a Boilermaker menu that included such soon-to-be classics like the Jingle Bell Wipe-Out (Bell’s Christmas Ale + Cinnamon Whiskey shot) and the Kris Kringle (Lagunitas Pilsner + Old Grand-Dad Bonded Bourbon), or our personal favorite, The Gingerbread Man (Schlafly Oatmeal Stout with a Gingerbread shot).

Big Batches For The Win

Even liquor brands are getting in on the action. Domaine de Canton, a popular ginger liqueur, recently hosted a bartending contest featuring Old School / New School bartending duos creating a variety of drinks in different categories, including punches, low-proof beer drinks and “shots for a group.” The latter category showed off two elements of successful shot cocktails: First, you can “batch” a shot drink, creating a bigger drink that is then shared among several people. And second, the proportions sometimes aren’t simply scaled down versions of bigger drinks: The booze needs to stand out, and more powerful mixers (absinthe, some bitters) can’t simply be halved for a recipe, as they can overpower a drink. Pouring larger batches allows you to cut back on certain ingredients in a manner you wouldn’t for a full-sized cocktail. Neff and his brother Michael (founder of New York’s Ward III whiskey den in Tribeca) offered up the Negroni de Marteau (gin, Campari, Domaine de Canton, vermouth) and the unnamed combination of gin, Domaine de Canton, muscovado sugar and lemon wedges.

“Shots can be as creative as the staff we have making them,” says Danny Neff’s brother Michael, who helped re-launch the Holiday Cocktail Lounge. “In essence, we can play around as much as we like, and offer our clientele an incentive to play around with us.”

The One-Two Punch
(from Lucinda Sterling, Middle Branch, NYC)

2 oz Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey

1 oz Domaine de Canton Ginger Liqueur

1/2 oz Drambuie Liqueur

3/4 oz Fresh Lemon Juice

Dash Absinthe

Combine ingredients in a cocktail shaker. Add ice, shake well and strain into 1-oz shot glasses or cordial glasses. Garnish with grated cinnamon.